Not as it’s defined in international law. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines piracy as "any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft." Specifically, the law applies to piracy “on the high seas or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any state.” So even if they were swinging cutlasses and flying the Jolly Roger from the windows of their Land Cruisers, Moore’s assailants weren’t legally acting as pirates when they captured him. They would be more accurately described as carjackers, kidnappers, gangsters, or bandits.

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Why, then, do news accounts refer to them as pirates? Because they arr. The kidnapping was reportedly carried out by a gang whose leader is a well-known pirate commander. The commander, Ali Duulaye, is thought to have helped hijack a Seychelles-flagged fishing vessel in December. A pirate source told the website Somalia Report on Saturday that Moore was being held on land, alongside two hostages taken from that vessel, though he has apparently since been moved. Somalia Report’s editor, the Canadian journalist Jay Bahadur, tells the Explainer that the proliferation of armed guards on vessels plying the Arabian Sea has forced pirate networks to focus more on land-based operations of late.

In theory, this shift to terra firma could pose legal complications for countries such as the United States as they attempt to rescue hostages. The prohibition on piracy is one of the oldest and clearest in international law, dating to the time of Cicero, who declared pirates the common enemies of all—“hostis humani generis.” That phrase forms the basis for universal jurisdiction: Because pirates operate outside of national boundaries, any country is legally permitted to arrest and prosecute them. In practice, universal jurisdiction is rarely invoked: Few countries take the trouble to go after pirates unless it’s their own citizens who are being held. In that case, they may simply assert their inherent right to protect their own people abroad.

The trickier legal issue is carrying out military operations on another country’s soil, which can be a violation of sovereignty whether the targets are pirates or not. That’s unlikely to constrain the United States if it believes it has a chance to free Moore, however. Somalia’s internationally recognized government wields little authority beyond the battle-scarred capital, Mogadishu, which is the reason pirates proliferated there in the first place. Plus, the United States is a key ally in the Somali government’s long-running fight with the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab.

March 3 2015 1:39 PMThe “Most Pleasurable Portrayal of Libertarianism“ Bonus SegmentDavid, Emily, and John discuss what Parks and Recreation got right about government.Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and John Dickerson